Elongation in Acheulean handaxes: A matter of choice

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have found that long and slender stone tools were made by human ancestors at least a million years ago – nearly twice as long ago as generally thought.

Materials such as branches, twigs, and stems were readily available to both animal and human tool makers from millions of years ago, but research at Liverpool has now shown that elongate forms were also made out of stone by human ancestors much earlier than is usually recognised.

Professor John Gowlett, as a member of an international team based on the University’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is working at Kilombe in Kenya, where he has found a number of hand axe tools that are very long and narrow.

Special attraction

Professor Gowlett said: “Psychologists have shown that moderately elongate forms are often favoured, especially those in the ratio 0.61. But there also seems to be a special attraction to far longer and slenderer forms.

“Some of the stone tools from Kilombe and other early sites are almost two and a half times as long as broad and there is no way this can occur by accident. They must have been carefully crafted.

“Usually such slender shapes are found far later in the fine blade tools made by Homo sapiens.  The hand-axes were made by the earlier Homo erectus.

“As the concentrations of elongate tools are rare on the Kilombe site, they were probably made to carry out tasks of animal butchery or plant preparation which did not occur very often.

“They show that when the need arose early humans were capable of strikingly sophisticated behaviour.”
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References:

Past Horizons. 2013. “Elongation in Acheulean handaxes: A matter of choice”. Past Horizons. Posted: October 31, 2013. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2013/elongation-in-acheulean-handaxes-a-matter-of-choice

A Bewitching History: Why Witches Ride Broomsticks

Among the throngs of this year's trick-or-treaters, hundreds of Americans will be dressed as Miley Cyrus or a minion from "Despicable Me," but more will go with a fail-safe getup. "Witch" once again reigns as the No. 1 costume for adults, according to the National Retail Federation's 2013 Halloween survey.

Many of the pointy-hatted sorcerers who roam the streets this Oct. 31 will be carrying broomsticks or besoms. But few likely know the murky tale of how witches came to be associated with those familiar household objects.

The story — full of sex, drugs and Christian inquisitors — starts with poisonous plants like black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), sometimes called stinking nightshade.

Flying ointments

Ingesting henbane, which is rich in powerful alkaloids, can cause hallucinations (if it doesn't kill you first). According to legend, witches used herbs with psychoactive properties like henbane in their potions, or "flying ointments." Some historical accounts suggest witches applied these ointments to their nether regions. And what better applicator than a wooden staff?

Lady Alice Kyteler, Ireland's earliest known accused witch, was condemned to death for using sorcery to kill her husband in 1324. (Kyteler escaped, and her maid was burned at the stake in her stead.)

The English historian Raphael Holinshed later recounted the case and described some of the supposedly damning evidence authorities found against Kyteler: "In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of ointment wherewith she greased her staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin."

Another oft-cited account comes a from 15th-century manuscript by theologian Jordanes de Bergamo. In his "Quaestio de Strigis" of 1470, Bergamo writes of witches who on "certain days or nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places."

It's hard to know whether or not witches actually did the deeds they were rumored to have done (like mounting hallucinogen-laced wooden staffs in their covens). Sources from the era when fears about witchcraft peaked are unreliable and biased, noted Charles Zika, a professor at the University of Melbourne, who has written about the imagery of witchcraft. Modern knowledge of witches often comes from manuals written by inquisitors, ecclesiastical judges and testimony by accused witches — much of it produced under duress or torture, Zika explained.

"A lot of it we can't trust as descriptions of social reality at all," Zika told LiveScience.

Sexy witches

The explicit implications of staff riding, and the sexual nature of witches in images throughout the Renaissance, are difficult to ignore. Artists like Albrecht Dürer and Hans Baldung depicted them naked. The witch in one engraving by the Italian artist Parmigianino is not riding a broom, but rather a gigantic, anatomically graphic phallus.

But racy images of witches fit in with a culture in which there was much speculation about female sexuality, Zika said.

"It's bound up with an anxiety about women and what place they have in society at a time when Europe was undergoing fundamental changes and transformations in society," Zika said. With the Protestant Reformation, some religious leaders established bans on drinking and dancing, brothels were closed and marriage was more strictly codified and controlled.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, images of witches riding up and out of chimneys start to dominate. During this period, women also were more closely associated with domestic space than they were 200 years earlier, Zika said. At that time, too, brooms are depicted more and more often in relation to domestic work in art.

"It seems to me that this idea of them flying out the chimney is actually kind of a protest against this confinement in domestic space," Zika said. "Witchcraft is symbolically in some ways freeing individuals from that kind of conception of their realm."

Can witches really fly?

Though the image of the broomstick stuck, early depictions in 15th- and 16th-century Europe show witches flying on a wide range of items, including stools, cupboards, wardrobes and two-pronged cooking forks, Zika said. But rarely are witches shown getting aloft on their own.

"There are very few representations of what you might call flying witches — they're usually riding some implement or animal," he explained.

"It's not their own bodies that are propelling them," Zika said. "The explanation in the theological handbooks is that they are being supported by demons and devils that are holding them."

Hundreds of years later, it can be tough to tease out what people and artists of the Renaissance actually believed about witches. In any case, some brave, if ill-advised, modern accounts suggest witches' flying potions probably worked. In his book "The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia" (Daily Grail Publishing, 2008), author Paul Devereux recounts folklorist Will-Erich Peuckert's 20th-century experimentation with a mixture of belladonna, henbane and Datura:

"We had wild dreams. Faces danced before my eyes which were at first terrible. Then I suddenly had the sensation of flying for miles through the air. The flight was repeatedly interrupted by great falls. Finally, in the last phase, an image of an orgiastic feast with grotesque sensual excess."
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References:

Gannon, Megan. 2013. “A Bewitching History: Why Witches Ride Broomsticks”. Live Science. Posted: October 30, 2013. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/40828-why-witches-ride-broomsticks.html

Drone mapping the pyramids of Zuleta in Ecuador

The Pyramids of Zuleta are one of the hidden treasures of the Andes. Built around 1,000 years ago, by the native Caranqui people, these earthen mounds and platform pyramids dominate the landscape near Hacienda Zuleta in the mountains of northern Ecuador and 110 kilometres north of Quito.

Unlike much of our planet, high resolution aerial imagery and digital elevation models are unavailable for this part of the world. This is due to the fog that often blankets the area and the agrarian nature of the region. As a part of a team of archaeologists who visited the site in August 2013, we aimed to change that.

A challenging task

Using a small, hand-launched, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV aka drone) equipped with a downward facing camera and a sophisticated autopilot system, we documented the site as it has never been seen—from extremely low altitude and at high resolution.  This was a challenging task as most of the pyramids are located in the bottom of a steep constricted canyon inhabited by Andean Condors. To make things more challenging there were high winds, clouds, and quirks of the micro-climates within the canyon to contend with. In spite of that, we were able to fly nine missions and collect hundreds of photographs in just a couple of days.

The UAV flies in a defined pattern and collects photographs. The onboard autopilot insures that each image has 60% or more overlap with adjacent images. These overlapping images allow for the data to be processed into 3D and digital terrain models (DTMs) using photogrammetric and cutting edge Structure from Motion technologies. All of the data are GIS ready. While basic processing allowed us to see the mapped data in the field, it was necessary to further develop it using a high-end processing farm in Maryland, once we were back in the United States.

New discoveries

This approach has already led to the discovery of many more mounds that are not obvious to the naked eye but stand out in the data. Furthermore, it is the first time the detailed spatial relationship between each of the earthen structures can be explored with precision. This data will be used to track the condition of the mounds over time and has created a digital snapshot of their current state for future generations to ponder. This was accomplished with only a few days of fieldwork and under harsh conditions. To create a map of similar accuracy using traditional survey approaches would have taken weeks and lacked the aerial imagery this approach provides.

Our team has conducted similar mapping missions in Australia, Belize, Belgium, Fiji, France, Germany, The Republic of Kiribati, Peru, and South Africa. We look forward to continuing these sorts of projects elsewhere and helping to preserve and understand our past.

The archaeological mapping and processing team included Chet Walker and Mark Willis. The rest of the archaeological team was made up of Steve Athens and David O. Brown. Athens and Brown are experts on the archaeology of the Andes and have worked for decades in the region. We would like to thank Fernando Polanco Plaza, the general manager of Hacienda Zuelta, for his hospitality and dedication to preserving the rich heritage of Ecuador.
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References:

Willis, Mark. 2013. “Drone mapping the pyramids of Zuleta in Ecuador”. Past Horizons. Posted: October 29, 2013. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2013/drone-mapping-pyramids-zuleta-ecuador

Voodoo: Facts About Misunderstood Religion

Voodoo (or, more correctly, voudon) is an Afro-Caribbean religion originating in Haiti. While some confuse voodoo with voudon, voodoo is best understood as a sensationalized pop-culture caricature of voudon.

Voudon teaches belief in a supreme being called Bondye, an unknowable and uninvolved creator god. Voudonbelievers worship many spirits (called loa), each one of whom is responsible for a specific domain or part of life. So, for example, if you are a farmer you might give praise and offerings to the spirit of agriculture; if you are suffering from unrequited love, you would praise or leave offerings for Erzulie Freda, the spirit of love, and so on. In addition to helping (or impeding) human affairs loa can also manifest themselves by possessing the bodies of their worshipers.

Leslie Desmangles, a Haitian professor at Hartford's Trinity College writing in "The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal" notes that "The use of the term 'voudon' in Haiti refers to a whole assortment of cultural elements: personal creeds and practices, including an elaborate system of folk medical practices; a system of ethics transmitted across generations [including] proverbs, stories, songs, and folklore... voudon is more than belief; it is a way of life."

Haiti is most closely associated with voudon, though followers of the religion can be found in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere. Followers of voudon also believe in a universal energy and a soul that can leave the body during dreams and spirit possession. In Christian theology, spiritual possession is usually considered to be an act of evil, either Satan or some demonic entity trying to enter an unwilling human vessel. In voudon, however, possession by loa is desired. In a ceremony guided by a priest or priestess this possession is considered a valuable, first-hand spiritual experience and connection with the spirit world.

History of voudon

Voudon originated with slaves who combined elements of their West African traditions and beliefs with the Roman Catholicism imposed upon them by their masters in a process called syncretism. A 1685 law forbade the practice of African religions and required all masters to Christianize their slaves within eight days of their arrival, and slavery was condoned by the Catholic Church as a tool for converting Africans to morally upright Christians. Slaves forced to adopt Catholic rituals thus gave them double meanings, and in the process many of their spirits became associated with Christian saints. Furthermore, Desmangles notes, "Many of the African spirits were adapted to their new milieu in the New World. Ogun, for instance, the Nigerian spirit of ironsmiths, hunting and warfare took on a new persona... He became Ogou, the military leader who has led phalanxes into battle against oppression. In Haiti today, Ogou inspires many political revolutions that oust undesirable oppressive regimes."

Though Haitian slavery ended in the early 1800s, followers of voudon were often persecuted by authorities who demonized their religion. An 1889 book titled "Hayti, or the Black Republic" falsely attributed human sacrifices, cannibalism and other atrocities to voudon, further spreading fear of the religion. Many fundamentalist Christians still regard voudon and voodoo with suspicion, associating it with the occult, black magic and Satanism. Even today "voodoo" is often used as an adjective to describe something that is unknowable, mysterious, or simply unworkable (for example in 1980 George H. W. Bush famously disparaged Ronald Reagan's monetary policies as "voodoo economics").

Voodoo and zombies

The more sensational aspects of voudon, such as belief in zombies and animal sacrifice, have provided fodder for countless television shows and movies in the form of voodoo. Zombies are an especially good example of how a religious element can be taken out of context and become a global phenomenon.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "zombie" first appeared in English around 1810 when historian Robert Southey mentioned it in his book "History of Brazil." But this "zombi" was not the familiar brain-eating manlike monster but instead, like many voudon loa, a West African deity. The word later came to suggest the vital, human force leaving the shell of a body, and ultimately a creature human in form but lacking self-awareness, intelligence and a soul.

The original Haitian zombies were not villains but victims. Haitian zombies were said to be people brought back from the dead (and sometimes controlled) through magical means by priests called bokors. Sometimes, the zombification was done as punishment (striking fear in those who believed that they could be abused even after death), but often the zombies were said to have been used as slave labor on the island's farms and sugarcane plantations (though no evidence of the zombie-filled farms was ever found).

The voodoo popular in movies and fiction bears little resemblance to real voudon beliefs or practices. Voodoo has become a prominent feature of the New Orleans tourism industry, with countless shops, tours, exhibits, and museums capitalizing on that city's historic (and, some experts say, tenuous) connection to voudon. Of course, stripping sacred objects and rituals out of their original context for commercial exploitation is nothing new: witness Chinese-made Native American dream catchers for sale at dollar stores.

In the end, voudon has a largely undeserved reputation as a sinister religion. Though some voudon rituals involve animal sacrifices, it is hardly unique; many other religious traditions involve animal bloodletting including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. The irony is that voudon's best-known and most sensational features — including voodoo dolls and zombies — have little to do with its actual beliefs and practices.
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References:

Radford, Benjamin. 2013. “Voodoo: Facts About Misunderstood Religion”. Live Science. Posted: October 30, 2013. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/40803-voodoo-facts.html

Forbidden City: Home to Chinese Emperors

The Forbidden City (also called Zijin Cheng) is a 72-hectare (178 acres) palace complex in Beijing that was used by the emperors of China from A.D. 1420 to 1911.

In total, 24 emperors occupied the Forbidden City, so named because it could only be accessed by the emperor, his immediate family, his women and thousands of eunuchs (castrated male servants) and officials. It was renovated constantly throughout its 600-year history.

The complex consists of about 980 buildings, mainly in yellow and red colors, surrounded by a wall 32 feet (10 meters) high and a moat 171 feet (52 meters) wide. The city is configured on a north-south axis that aligns with the pole star, emphasizing the emperor’s position as the son of heaven. “The whole palace context is built along a central axis, the axis of the world,” said University of Sydney professor Jeffrey Riegel in a 2008 BBC/History Channel documentary, “everything in the four directions suspend from this central point represented by these palaces.”

The southern portion, which is also called the outer court, ends in the Hall of Supreme Harmony (the largest building) and tended to be where official business was carried out. The northern portion, which is also known as the inner court, had the residences of the emperor and his family as well as the harem where his concubines were kept.

It was difficult for an ordinary male to enter the Forbidden City, said Chen Shen, the curator of a Forbidden City exhibition set to open at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum in 2014, at a recent media presentation. He said that for a common man to enter he would likely have to become a eunuch, having his genitals cut off.  Even then “you still have to work your way up for many, many, many years before you get close to the emperor and his women.”

Shen added that the Forbidden City is, today, a major tourist destination attracting millions of visitors each year. On a single day in 2013, October 2, “the Forbidden City welcomed 175,000 visitors making it the most visited World Heritage destination in the world.”

Origins

The palace complex was ordered built by Zhu Di (the Yongle Emperor) who lived A.D. 1360-1424. He was crowned emperor in 1402 after forcefully overthrowing his nephew. After his ascension, he decided to move the imperial capital from Nanjing to his power base in what was then called Beiping, renaming the city Beijing “the northern capital.”

Moving the capital and building a new palace complex was an immense operation that meant expanding China’s canal system and mobilizing about 1 million workers to cut down trees, quarry rocks, make bricks and transport supplies, among the many other necessary activities.

The emperor felt that heaven had turned against him when, in 1421, lightning strikes resulted in three of his palaces burning down. “I am frightened to the very core of my being and I don’t know what to do …” said the emperor in a document quoted by Riegel in the documentary. Despite Zhu Di’s bad fortune the Forbidden City continued to be used by China’s emperors in both good times and bad.

Entering the City

The Meridian Gate, which towers as high as 125 feet (38 meters), is located in the south and serves as the formal entranceway to the city. It leads visitors through a series of courtyards that end in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the central and largest building where the emperor would conduct business.

Officials had to wait outside the Meridian Gate at about 3 a.m. to be admitted for their work, the gateway also serving public ceremonial purposes, writes Geremie Barme, a professor at the Australian National University, in his book "The Forbidden City" (Profile Books, 2008). “From the gate’s parapets, emperors presided over military ceremonies and victory parades, as well as the annual proclamation of the calendar which determined agricultural and ritual activities throughout the empire.”

The Hall of Supreme Harmony sits on a dais and stands about 115 feet (35 meters) tall, writes Marilyn Shea, a professor at the University of Maine, in a 2009 online article. “At the top of the building, at each end of the roof ridge, are two dragons facing one another,” she writes noting that each dragon is more than 11 feet (3 meters) long and weighs close to five tons.

Barme notes that in later times, after a line of rulers from Manchuria formed the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), another building known as the “Hall of Mental Cultivation” took over, in practice, as the main workplace of the emperor.

Change of dynasties

One of the most important events to happen in the Forbidden City occurred in 1644. In that year, a rebel army attacked Beijing, forcing the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian (the Chongzhen emperor) to commit suicide.

A Manchu army from Manchuria was invited by the remaining Ming supporters to march on Beijing and kick the rebels out. They succeeded but the price of their success was the founding of a new, Manchu-led, dynasty known as the Qing. Their rulers would go on to rebuild Beijing, and much of the Forbidden City, after the devastation brought by the rebel forces. They incorporated Manchu customs into the daily life of the city while continuing to respect earlier Ming customs. The Qing Dynasty would be the last imperial dynasty of China, ending in 1912 with the abdication of the 5-year-old Puyi.

An emperor’s retirement abode

The Qing Dynasty reached the height of its power under Hongli (the Qianlong emperor) who reigned 1736-1795. In 1795, after ruling for 60 years, he officially retired as emperor so that the length of his rule would not surpass that of his grandfather.

In doing so, he built a retirement palace called Ningshougong (Tranquility and Longevity Palace) in the northeast part of the Forbidden City, writes Nancy Berliner in an article published in the book "The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City" (Peabody Essex Museum, 2010). It included a “twenty-seven pavilion garden” spanning two acres that “would reference nature and inner harmony, with places for leisurely contemplation, poetry writing, Buddhist meditation, and delighting in the visual arts,” Berliner writes.

In practice, the Qianlong emperor was never able to fully enjoy this palace or his retirement, retaining unofficial power up until his death in 1799. His rule would represent the height of the Qing Dynasty, the 19th century being one of decline.

The two Dowagers

In the 19th century, the Dowagers, mothers of the emperors, would gain greater influence. Dowager Cixi, who lived 1835-1908, would gain great power when her 5-year-old son, the Tongzhi Emperor, ascended the throne in 1861. For a time, she ruled literally “behind the screen” along with Dowager Ci’an (who died in 1881), telling Tongzhi and his successor what to do.

This period of rule was one of decline for the Qing Dynasty, something which some authors have tried to blame on the Dowagers, Cixi in particular. A major problem the Qing had to deal with was the relative decline of their own military in comparison to that of the Western powers. Barme notes that after the failed 1900 Boxer Rebellion, a foreign army occupied Beijing, looting the Forbidden City.

The imperial throne did not last long after Cixi’s 1908 death. In 1911, an uprising forced the 5-year-old emperor Puyi and his Dowager mother to flee the Forbidden City. He formally abdicated the following year and China would never have an emperor again. The Palace Museum was founded in the Forbidden City in 1925. Today this museum has about 1.5 million artifacts from the city under its care.

Forbidden City under Mao

Even without the emperors, there was still much history left to be made in the Forbidden City. In the Chinese civil war that broke out after World War II, the retreating Nationalists moved about 600,000 treasures, originally from the Forbidden City, to Taiwan, where they are now part of a Palace Museum in Taipei.

When the communists under Mao took control of Beijing, they didn’t know what to do with the Forbidden City. Barme notes in his book that the palace complex, with the opulence it afforded the emperor, seemed at odds with Mao’s way of thinking and plans were proposed to tear it down. They were never put into action, however, and when Richard Nixon made his groundbreaking trip to China in 1972, he visited the Forbidden City.

Unexplored history

Today, there are still many more stories waiting to be told about the Forbidden City. The Palace Museum in Beijing has more than 1.5 million artifacts from the city, including many which have yet to be published despite a program that has produced 60 volumes in the last few decades.

Chen Shen told LiveScience in an interview that when his team was putting together the new exhibition they made a week-long trip to the vaults where many treasures of the emperors and their families are being stored, including their textiles, bronzes, paintings, silver and gold utensils, documents, thrones and personalized cups among many other objects. Of the 250 artifacts his team selected for the Toronto exhibition, about 50 have never been published and 80 had never left the Forbidden City at all.

For educators and documentary makers, telling the numerous stories about the Forbidden City is also a challenge. Recently the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation supported a 100-episode documentary co-produced by CCTV9 and the Palace Museum that tells as much of the story as possible.

Today the importance of the Forbidden City is again undisputed. Whatever doubts Mao had about the Forbidden City had when he first entered it have been swept aside and today it is recognized as one of the greatest heritage sites in China and indeed the world. “This building still stands today as the symbol of the Chinese people and their great and glorious history,” said McGill University professor Robin Yates in the BBC/History Channel documentary.
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References:

Jarus, Owen. 2013. “Forbidden City: Home to Chinese Emperors”. Live Science. . Posted: Available online: http://www.livescience.com/40764-forbidden-city.html

European Roots for Native Americans?

An analysis of ancient DNA from a 24,000-year-old Siberian skeleton generates a new model for the original peopling of the Western Hemisphere.

Native Americans may not have descended from East Asians who crossed the Bering Land Bridge more than 15,000 years ago, according to a new genomic analysis of a millennia-old Siberian skeleton. A portion of the nuclear DNA recovered from the upper arm bone of a 4-year-old boy that was buried near the Siberian village of Mal’ta about 24,000 years ago is shared by modern Native Americans and no other group. But the boy appears to have been descended from people of European or western Asian origin.

Eske Willerslev, a University of Copenhagen ancient DNA expert, announced the findings last week at the Paleoamerican Odyssey conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the resulting manuscript is in press at Nature. In addition to finding genome regions shared by modern Native Americans, he and collaborator Kelly Graf of Texas A&M University found that the boy’s Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA belonged to haplogroups that are found almost exclusively in Europeans and people living in Asia west of the Altai Mountains.

Conspicuously absent from the child’s DNA, however, was any connection to modern East Asians, a genetic relationship present in the genomes of virtually all Native Americans. This means that the population from which the boy came must have included ancestors of modern Native Americans, upsetting the popular belief that the original inhabitants of North, Central, and South America descended directly from East Asians.

According to Science, Willerslev and Graf suggest that at some point before 24,000 years ago, the ancestors of modern Native Americans and those of East Asians split into two genetically distinct groups. The Mal’ta boy belonged to a population that migrated to Siberia from Eurasia and mixed with the second before the newly formed population moved into the New World, eventually populating the Americas.

Previously, the presence of European DNA in the modern Native American genome was attributed to interbreeding after Europeans made contact. This new finding may turn that supposition on its head. “The west Eurasian [genetic] signatures that we very often find in today's Native Americans don't all come from postcolonial admixture,” Willerslev said during his presentation. “Some of them are ancient.”

Though reconstructing humanity’s westward expansion into the New World involves some speculation, recovering the intact DNA of the Mal’ta boy represents a technological feat: his is oldest complete genome of a modern human sequenced to date.
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References:

Grant, Bob. 2013. “European Roots for Native Americans?”. The Scientist. Posted: October 29, 2013. Available online: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38061/title/European-Roots-for-Native-Americans-/

Figurines reveal secrets of ancient African rituals

Secrets of sixty remarkable clay figurines – up to 1,400-years-old and excavated by archaeologists from The Universities of Ghana and Manchester, and the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB)– are to be revealed at an exhibition which started on 25 October.

The beautiful objects – up to 31cm in height – will take pride of place at the Manchester Museum, part of the University, the first time they will be seen publicly outside Ghana.

Invoking the ancestors

The figurines, including two-headed humans, a chameleon, a crocodile and a man on horseback, are thought by the team to have been used to invoke the help of ancestors to cure illnesses.

Using computed tomography scanning techniques at The University of Manchester, the team revealed hidden channels within the objects which they think had a medicinal function, used for liquid ritual offerings.

The figurines show people with congenital conditions including anencephaly – which still affects children in Africa today.

Others depict costumes, ornaments and weapons that were worn and used, as well as animals that had symbolic roles.

Some figurines in the collection were also possibly ‘scapegoats’, intended as the focus or recipient of disease and misfortune rather than their human keepers.

The figures have been dated to between the 6th and the 14th centuries.

Further analysis by the team, led by Professor Benjamin Kankpeyeng from The University of Ghana working with Professor Timothy Insoll from The University of Manchester, will show what liquid ritual offerings were actually used.

The figurines were found in a village called Yikpabongo in Koma Land in the north of Ghana. They come from two mounds thought to be used as a shrine by the makers of the objects.

Illegal excavations

Because the figurines are highly sought after in the art market, some mounds in the region have been illegally excavated.

They have been added to the International Council of Museums Red List, a register of archaeological material at risk.

Professor Kankpeyeng said: “These figurines are unique to the region and offer an insight into aspects of past human beliefs, ways of understanding and creativity.

“This has not always been possible, where there is no tradition of making representations, or when they simply have not survived.

“Their exquisite and consistent appearance obviously required a great deal of skill, suggesting those who made them were a specialist occupation.

“Unfortunately, some of the mounds have been illegally excavated to obtain figurines to sell and The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and other national, regional, and local stakeholders continue working hard to combat this.

“The people of the villages of Koma Land have a keen sense of the figurines as part of their heritage and deeply resent the unethical trade in such material.” No connection with current inhabitants

Professor Insoll said: “Little is known about the people who made the figurines, who have no connection with Koma Land’s current inhabitants.

“In fact, we know little in general about the past in this part of Ghana, because there are few historical sources before the late 19th century and oral traditions are scarce.

“But archaeology is unlocking some of the secrets of the past, and this project shows what can be achieved.

“We now know the figurines may have had ritual and medicinal functions and the mounds they were found in were perhaps medicine shrines, or places for disposal of material considered dangerous.

“We also know these people were farmers, who traded with cowry shells, used iron tools and lived in villages, with complex religious beliefs.

“The horse or camel and rider figurine indicates awareness of animals used in long distance travel.

“The people of the villages of Koma Land in Ghana are involved in this fieldwork and have a keen sense of the figurines as part of their heritage.

“So we are proud that this exhibition actively involves Ghanaian archaeologists and museum curators who are coming to Manchester to support it.”
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References:

Past Horizons. 2013. "Figurines reveal secrets of ancient African rituals". Past Horizons. Posted: October 28, 2013. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2013/figurines-reveal-secrets-of-ancient-african-rituals